


A Commander's Choice

by wanderingjedihistorian (RangerJedi67)



Series: Whumptober 2020 [3]
Category: Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Cody gets taken prisoner, Cody has a terrible couple of days, Drugs in the food, Gen, Ghost Company is badass, Hurt CC-2224 | Cody, Mentions of possible additional violence but nothing graphic, Obi-Wan takes exception to his Commander being captured and mistreated, can be read as gen or pre-Codywan, canon level violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-09
Updated: 2020-10-09
Packaged: 2021-03-07 16:01:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,634
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26920336
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RangerJedi67/pseuds/wanderingjedihistorian
Summary: Cody had always assumed he would meet his end protecting his Jedi. He had long since made peace with that. When he stayed to protect his General and their men as they retreated, he accepted his inevitable fate. Nothing went according to plan.
Series: Whumptober 2020 [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1946806
Comments: 5
Kudos: 117





	A Commander's Choice

**Author's Note:**

> Whumptober continues. This piece is for the following prompts:
> 
> No 4. RUNNING OUT OF TIME  
>  **Caged** | ~~Buried Alive | Collapsed Building~~  
>  No 5. WHERE DO YOU THINK YOU’RE GOING?  
> | ~~On the Run |~~ **Failed Escape | Rescue**  
>  No 9. FOR THE GREATER GOOD  
> | ~~“Take Me Instead”~~ | **“Run!”** | | ~~Ritual Sacrifice~~  
>  No 22. DO THESE TACOS TASTE FUNNY TO YOU?  
> | ~~Poisoned~~ | **Drugged** | | ~~Withdrawal~~
> 
> It's Cody's turn to be whumped this time. 
> 
> Many thanks to Evilkillerpoptarts for betaing this!

CWCWCWCW  
They were being backed into a corner with only one route open to escape and it was rapidly closing. Cody knew what he had to do. There was only one option here and he was willing to be the one to die to ensure the others lived. It was worth it. 

“I’ll hold them. Run!” Cody yelled.

“No. Not without you!” Obi-Wan shouted back.

The General was not willing to abandon his Commander.

“General, please. Get out of here. Take our men with you,” Cody demanded, asked, _begged._ “You’re their best chance of escape. I’ll cover your retreat, _go_.”

The clones were made for the Jedi. Dying to protect his General and some of his brothers? It was everything Cody ever expected. And it was the easiest choice he ever made. He only wished his General understood. He didn’t have to be Force sensitive to feel the Jedi’s regret as he led the retreat. Cody was sorry that was the last emotion he would cause his General. He never would have wanted that.

CWCWCWCW

Cody awoke, in pain and disoriented. He hadn’t expected to wake ever again. After a blaster shot to the side and another to the chest, he lost ground fast. When his helmet had gotten knocked off his head, he had known his death was imminent. He hadn’t even seen the next hit coming but would have expected it to be fatal.

Why was he still alive? He was just a clone. Why not kill him? He was a Marshal Commander so there were many things he knew and could access, yes. But his command codes would already be deauthorized. Shared codes for anything he could access would already be changed. That was just standard procedure. 

Did they want him for what he knew? He’d sooner die. He was trained to resist interrogation and torture. Whoever these beings were, they would have a hard time forcing anything out of him. Force. Unless they had a darksider with them. He wouldn’t be able to resist one of those, no matter how hard he tried. Would that be their plan? Bring in Ventress to interrogate him? Or worse, Dooku himself? Not that Cody was entirely sure Dooku would bother with a lowly clone. 

He tried to steer his mind away from that line of thought. Worrying would do him no good. He had to assess his situation and determine the best way to attempt an escape. His General probably thought he was dead so he couldn’t rely on rescue. He would have to do this himself. And to do that he would need to plan. He could do this. 

He had to.

Cody was surprised that he wasn’t cuffed or chained in any way. Were they that sure the cell would hold him? Or was it some kind of test?

They had taken his armor, but had left him his blacks and his boots. That was something at least. 

What could have been minutes or hours later, a slot at the bottom of the door opened. A tray was pushed through and it rapidly closed again.

He pondered the food. Was it drugged? Was that why they didn’t have him restrained? They assumed the drugs would do the job well enough, so it wasn’t necessary to use chains? He’d show them what a flawed assumption _that_ was.

CWCWCWCW

His theory about the drugs was proven out. He ate the food and drank the water they gave him. It didn’t take long to start to feel fuzzy. 

So he didn’t touch the second meal. Ten minutes after it arrived, the cell was filled with gas and he passed out. He woke up some time later feeling even worse than the drugs made him feel.

He didn’t reject the next meal. If he was going to be drugged one way or the other, he may as well get what nutrients and hydration he could out of the ordeal.

CWCWCWCW

Two days. He was relatively certain he had been in his cell for two days. He had examined every inch and found a small, but exploitable flaw in the door mechanism when the food delivery flap opened. It wasn’t easy work, but he managed to get the door open. Step one of his escape plan was complete. 

Unfortunately step two was much harder. He had managed to escape his cell, but the drugs they were pumping into him every day and his injuries made him slow and sluggish. But still, he was an ARC trained Marshal Commander. He wasn’t going to just sit in his cell and wait for them to torture him, kill him or try (and fail) to ransom him back to the Republic. He pressed on. 

Cody began to realize he was in trouble when he couldn’t go more than a dozen steps without having to stop to lean against a wall. He was going to get caught and he wasn’t going to be able to do a karking thing to defend himself. 

He had to keep going.

He was barely two hallways away from his cell when he stumbled and crashed hard into the ground. Pain flared up his side and arm. He tried to take slow breaths, tried to just breathe through the pain like he had been taught. His vision swam. He tried to get up, using the wall as leverage. He had just gotten his legs back under him when he heard noise coming from the other end of the hall. He was going to be caught if he didn’t move. 

Cody looked for options. He turned and went the few steps back to the junction and tried a different hallway. He made it another two dozen steps before an uneven spot in the floor brought him back to his knees.

This time, the pain overwhelmed him.

He passed out on the floor.

Droids found him a few minutes later.

CWCWCWCW

Cody woke curled up on the floor in a cage. It wasn’t big enough for him to stand or stretch out in any way. He struggled to sit up. It didn’t look like the cage was in his previous cell. But he assumed it was also a cell, since it did look fairly similar. The cage confused him. Why not just cuff him? Unless they thought he’d get out of cuffs more easily then he would break out of the cage and then the door?

Some time later a flap in the door opened. A tray was pushed inside, but it didn’t come all the way to him. He had to reach out through the bars and pull the tray the rest of the way. He ate the ration bar and drank the water before shoving the tray back towards the door. It hit with a clang.

When he heard the sounds of the drugged gas begin to fill the room, he decided they must not have liked his attitude.

CWCWCWCW

“Obi-Wan, I know you don’t want to accept it, but Cody is _dead._ He sacrificed himself for you and his men,” Anakin said firmly.

He hated to be so callous but Obi-Wan was being ridiculous.

For days Obi-Wan listened. He ignored his own instincts and focused on their efforts on the planet. But once the last droid was destroyed, he couldn’t ignore his instincts any longer.

“Cody is still on this planet; he is alive and I’m going to find him.”

Obi-Wan was not going to abandon Cody. It would have been one thing to have to leave his body behind; that was an unfortunate reality they often had to face. But he was certain Cody was alive.

CWCWCWCW

Cody felt so exhausted. It made no sense; he’d been trapped in the cage for three days. He hadn’t done anything; he was barely able to move. So why was he so tired? Was it the drugs? His injuries? A combination? He had no idea and he was no closer to figuring out a second escape attempt than he had been three days prior.

He was beginning to think he was in real trouble.

But he still hadn’t _seen_ anyone. _What did they want with him?_

CWCWCWCW

It took a far longer than Obi-Wan would have wanted, but they found where Cody was being held. He never even considered asking for permission; he simply planned the rescue.

“I don’t like you going in there without backup,” Anakin said with a frown.

“I know, but you have orders. You are expected to meet up with Aayla in less than a day. You don’t have time to stay or you risk letting her begin the battle alone. Cody wouldn’t want that. The 212th can handle this,” Obi-Wan assured.

The Knight hedged.

“I could leave Rex and Torrent with you. Take the rest of the 501st and meet up with Aayla. That way you have some extra hands but she still gets support too,” he offered. “Then Torrent could join us once you’re done here.”

The Master considered it. There had been no denying the devastation on Rex’s face when news of Cody’s fate reached him. And Torrent had certainly learned a few things from their Jedi about how to be distracting…

“Very well, if it will ease your mind,” Obi-Wan acquiesced. 

It was a little selfish, but if things went smoothly Torrent would be less than twelve hours behind their General. 

“It will,” Anakin said without hesitation. 

He was grateful that Rex would be there to have Obi-Wan’s back if he couldn’t be.

CWCWCWCW

The facility Cody was being held in, like many of the buildings on this particular planet, was old.

Fortunately, it meant defenses that were easy to break through since they hadn’t bothered to reinforce anything. Apparently the Separatists had banked on them assuming Cody was dead and not coming after him. 

There was a small contingent of droids but nothing more, likely because the Republic’s forces had done so well at decimating the Separatist contingent on the planet.

Unfortunately, Obi-Wan and the troops didn’t have up to date maps. That was the downside of old buildings on some worlds. 

They would just have to make do. Cody needed them. They would start with the areas labeled as holding cells and dungeons on the map they had. Why, exactly, this place needed _both_ Obi-Wan didn’t care to speculate. Hopefully those areas hadn’t changed as much as some of the other more well used parts of the facility had.

“Captain Rex, take your men and check the holding cells. Waxer, I want our best slicers to find whatever data they can from the computer core. Boil, take two squads and scout for anything else of interest or note in the facility. All of you, plant explosives in your area once you’ve cleared it. I want this place blown up when we are finished. The rest of Ghost will come with me and check the dungeons. I want the rest of the 212th guarding the perimeter and securing our escape routes,” Obi-Wan ordered.

“Yes sir!” rang out without hesitation. 

They were all eager to find Cody and get him out.

CWCWCWCW

They had a stroke of luck when the slicers were able to hack the first level of the system quickly and they were able to determine where Cody was being held.

“Rex, the slicers confirm Cody isn’t in the holding cells. And neither is anyone else. Have your men plant explosives then head back to the gunships. Cody is being held in the lower portion of the dungeon. We shall find and extract him,” Obi-Wan declared.

“Understood General!” Rex acknowledged.

Obi-Wan and the men with him continued towards Cody’s location.

“We found the commander’s armor and weapons,” Boil reported over comms a few minutes later.

“Excellent. I’m sure he will be pleased,” Obi-Wan said. “Finish your sweep and return to the ships.”

“Understood, sir!” Boil replied.

“Here, sir!” Wooley called a long moment later.

The Jedi rushed the remaining distance to the door Wooley was standing by. Obi-Wan was prepared for many things. But the sight of his Commander in nothing but his blacks and locked in a cage wasn’t one of them. He pushed the wave of anger back. That wasn’t what Cody needed from him.

“Check the room for traps, then get that cage door open!” he ordered.

Cody’s head snapped up at the sound of Obi-Wan’s voice but he didn’t say anything. The Jedi was concerned by that.

The clones set to work, checking to be sure it was safe to enter the room. Once they had, they rushed to examine the cage.

As soon as they got the cage open, a medic rushed in to check over the Commander.

“What…” Cody slurred.

“Shhh, sir. Just let me check you over quickly. It’s ok,” Bones said gently, trying not to spook his obviously unwell Commander.

The medic quickly cleaned the open injury on Cody’s upper arm and put a bacta patch over it.

“There aren’t any other open injuries that I’m detecting. We need to move him carefully, but we can get him back to the ship. I’ll be able to take better scans and assess his needs there,” the medic said to the General.

“Understood,” Obi-Wan said with a firm nod. “I will get him out of there. The Force will make it easier.”

The medic nodded and withdrew from the cage, allowing his General to enter instead.

“I’ve got you, Commander. You’re safe now,” Obi-Wan said gently, hoping to keep his injured trooper at ease.

“General?” Cody asked, more clearly than before but his eyes weren’t focusing properly.

“I’m here. We’re getting you out of here,” the Jedi assured.

“You came for me?” Cody’s voice hid none of the confusion he felt. 

“Of course, I did. I knew you were still alive, I wasn’t going to abandon you,” Obi-Wan said carefully. He gently got Cody to his feet and draped one of the Commander’s arms over his shoulder. “Your brothers will be very happy to see you.” 

The comms came to life as the slicer team successfully infiltrated the remainder of the facility's computer system. The slicer reported the Separatist’s plans for Cody. Obi-Wan felt a very un-Jedilike amount of rage fill him. His Commander was not being turned into a living experiment as long as he still drew breath.

“Rex, Waxer, Boil,” Obi-Wan called into his comm.

“Sir!”

“I want to be absolutely sure this place is nothing but rubble by the time we leave the planet.”

“With pleasure, sir.”

CWCWCWCW

“He’s exhausted, injured and there are signs of several different drugs in his system,” Bones informed the General.

“I feared as much based on his reactions,” Obi-Wan said sadly.

“We’re working on flushing the drugs from his system. He’s on an IV drip for fluids, and his injuries have been treated. After that, rest is the biggest thing he needs,” the medic explained.

“Do whatever he needs,” the General ordered.

Bones nodded sharply. “Yes, sir.”

Obi-Wan sat down in the chair next to Cody’s beside. 

“You gave us quite the scare, Cody. Please refrain from doing so again in the future,” he said quietly to the sleeping man.

He slipped into a light meditation, determined to stay at Cody’s side for as long as he could.

CWCWCWCW 

Cody woke slowly. He didn’t hurt as badly as he had before, and he clearly wasn’t in the cage anymore. He was on what felt suspiciously like a bed in MedBay.

“Easy, Cody. You’re safely back aboard the _Negotiator._ You’ve been asleep for nearly eighteen hours,” the General’s voice told him.

Cody made himself open his eyes. His General was at his side.

“That’s it, you’re alright now,” the Jedi said, voice soothing.

Yes. He’d be just fine. His General was there. 

CWCWCWCW


End file.
